C3PO: A New Open Source DFV/SDN Platform from Sprint

C3PO is an open source NFV- and SDN-based mobile core reference solution designed to significantly improve performance of the network core by providing a streamlined, high-performance data plane for the packet core, tightly coupled to an efficient, scalable SDN controller implementing IETF Forwarding Policy Configuration (FPC).

C3PO runs on standard, off-the-shelf Intel servers and acheives improved efficiency by collapsing multiple network components into a small number of compute cores. The common network components they identified to be collapsed are

As for next steps at Sprint, we’re now working to harden the C3PO code and extend it to a variety of use cases, including IoT [Internet of Things],” Marquardt said. “As operators scale IoT, low-cost solutions will be vital to drive viable economics when connected devices grow to 10’s and 100’s of billions in number. We believe a commercial version of C3PO to be a potential solution well-targeted for low-cost, large-scale applications such as this.